


the shield and the spear

by kythen



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Greek Mythology, KuroDai Week, KuroDai Week 2017, M/M, Memory Loss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-13
Updated: 2017-05-13
Packaged: 2018-10-31 08:46:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10895835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kythen/pseuds/kythen
Summary: Kurodai Week Bonus Day 8:Mythical Creatures /Super PowersDaichi finds himself on a journey, his memories gone and a man with beautiful golden eyes as his only guide.





	the shield and the spear

He wakes in darkness and the weight of living, the weight of bearing a body of flesh and blood and bone, presses down heavy on him.

He shouldn't be alive.

But here he is, air rushing into his lungs as he breathes, filling his blood with oxygen and making his body move. It hurts and he cries out wordlessly, trying to make himself stop.

"I'm here, I'm here. Daichi, I'm here," a voice wraps around him, soothing, and a hand grasps his, pulling him up and out of the dark.

Suddenly, it is bright all around him and there are tears streaming down his face as someone lifts him into the light. Hands cup his face, cool fingers trembling against his cheeks, and the voice murmurs comforting words over and over again like a prayer filling up his ears.

His sight comes to him slowly and when it is completely restored he sees a man's face before him with sharp, angular features and brilliant golden eyes. He is crying too and Daichi's heart lurches for some reason.

"Who are you?" Daichi gasps and the air that rushes through him hurts.

"Tetsurou," the man answers, finally breaking his continuous chant. His voice is hoarse, cracking as he sobs, "I am yours. Daichi, I'm so sorry."

\---

Daichi has no memories of what had happened to him but Tetsurou tells him that there had been a terrible accident. It was near-fatal, dropping Daichi into a coma and wiping out most of his memories in the process. Tetsurou had said he wouldn't know what to do if Daichi never woke up again because it was all his fault.

"You were protecting me," Tetsurou tells him. "You always do." He doesn't elaborate on it and Daichi doesn't push it, for now.

Daichi can't remember anything but he remembers speech and how to eat when Tetsurou passes him a bowl of porridge. They are sitting in the middle of the forest and Daichi remembers how to survive in it too, even if he doesn't remember where he is. Tetsurou had set up camp right by the cave that Daichi had been lying in and a fire crackles before them, a pot of porridge bubbling above it.

He doesn't remember Tetsurou but he remembers what Tetsurou had said when he had just woken up: _"I am yours."_

Daichi doesn't know what that means but Tetsurou treats him with an intimacy that makes Daichi think he might. He isn't steady enough to sit up on his own so Tetsurou lets him lean against his chest, his arms around him as Daichi lifts his spoon from his bowl, tedious mouthful by mouthful. Tetsurou doesn't speak much after Daichi has had his fill of answers, burrowing his face into the crook of his neck as he watches Daichi eat.

"I'm glad that the one thing that hasn't changed is your appetite," Tetsurou finally speaks as Daichi looks between his empty bowl and the bubbling pot hopefully.

That is the first time Daichi sees Tetsurou with the hint of a smile and it makes something tight in his chest uncurl and breathing comes a little more naturally to him after that.

\---

Tetsurou tells him that they are on a journey, travelling from the east to the west. The seasons are changing and soon they will have to seek shelter, but there is someplace they must reach before they can settle down.

Daichi can smell autumn on the wind, the crisp scent of leaves and the building cold behind it. There is still some time before winter hits but Tetsurou says that they will need all the time they can get.

Tetsurou packs up their camp quickly, his movements deft and focused, dividing the load equally between them both. He hesitates before handing over a pack to Daichi but Daichi takes it from him with both hands and slings it over his shoulders with a habitual familiarity. Before they go, Tetsurou steps in close, his hands ghosting past Daichi's neck. A weight settles against Daichi's collarbone, hanging from a cord, and Daichi looks down.

It is a medallion, burnished gold with ancient words stamped on both faces in a circular pattern. Daichi brings it up to his face but he cannot make out the words, their meaning lost on him.

"For safe travel," Tetsurou explains as he moves away, kicking dirt over the ashes of their fire and picking up his pack. The last thing he slings on his back is a spear, its blade wrapped in leather and twine.

"Are we expecting danger on the road?" Daichi asks.

"There is always danger in this world," Tetsurou says, the set of his mouth hard. It looks odd, seeing such an expression on his face. Daichi thinks he is better suited to smiling.

"But we have each other," Daichi says, testing the waters, trying to figure out what Tetsurou's intimacy means.

Tetsurou jolts, looking at Daichi with his bright golden eyes. His mouth softens, a smile playing along the edges of it. It looks much better on him but there is still something missing from it, something that Daichi thinks he should remember but doesn't.

"Yes, we do." Tetsurou reaches for his hand, clasping it palm-to-palm, fingers interlocking. "I'm never leaving you, Daichi. You're stuck with me forever."

It sounds like an oath, one that stirs old emotions in Daichi. "What did I do to get someone like you?" he murmurs, the words out of his mouth before he even realises that they had formed.

"Everything right," Tetsurou answers, his hand tightening around Daichi's.

The certainty that he responds with makes Daichi think that they have had the same conversation before, going through words that should be safely lodged in Daichi's memories. But they are gone and when Daichi looks into Tetsurou's golden eyes, the light in them fading when Daichi doesn't say anything else, he thinks he wants them back. He wants them all back.

\---

Being alive is a giddy, whimsical thing and Daichi finds his feet firmly in life. The forest is teeming with it, rustling through the trees and frolicking on the ground. Tetsurou hasn't given much indication of where they are going and Daichi thinks to ask but he wouldn't know where it is. He has been testing his memory as they walk and he finds that although he knows the forest, he cannot put a name to it or any of the cities he knows lie beyond its borders. He will just have to trust Tetsurou's lead, fixing his eyes on his broad back with his pack and his spear slung across it.

Tetsurou is a walking contradiction. He treats Daichi gently, watching his steps carefully and asking him how he feels every once in a while. But there are times when he turns to Daichi and opens his mouth to say something, his eyes flashing in something like nostalgia, before he decides against it. He is holding back and Daichi knows the cause of it is him and the gaping hole in his memories.

Tetsurou doesn't know how much to push and pull, uncomfortable as he adjusts to a Daichi he isn't quite familiar with. He is protective but Daichi knows that he hadn't treated Daichi like glass before the accident he had spoken of. He sees traces of their old interactions in the little things like Tetsurou dividing their packs equally without thinking or his hands lingering on him when he had put the medallion on. It isn't quite all there but it is a start, which Daichi can work with.

They have to stop for the night soon and Tetsurou picks a small clearing to set up camp. He tells Daichi to stay and get some rest.

"No," Daichi tells him and Tetsurou blinks. He had watched Tetsurou pack up their camp yesterday through unfocused eyes but he knows what they have and what they don't. Tetsurou had coddled him all through yesterday but Daichi isn't useless. Preparations for the night would go much faster with two sets of hands.

He tells Tetsurou this much and Tetsurou looks torn between joy and concern.

"Daichi..." Tetsurou begins and Daichi shoots him a look. "Fine," he relents. "Just don't strain yourself and stick close to camp."

Tetsurou picks his spear up, pulling off its leather and twine wrapping. Under it is an elongated leaf-shaped blade, flashing silver and sharp in the sunlight. Daichi thinks he sees the imprint of words along its edge but Tetsurou hefts it in his hands and it turns away from Daichi before he can get a closer look.

Tetsurou follows Daichi as he picks through the forest, collecting firewood and edible plants and mushrooms, until Daichi points out that the animals would probably be elsewhere, scared off by Daichi's incautious footsteps. Tetsurou hesitates and Daichi turns his back on him until he disappears, his footsteps so quiet that Daichi doesn't know when he goes.

When he returns to camp, Tetsurou is already there, skinning a rabbit with quick, deft movements, leaving a small pile of entrails and fur aside as he chops up the meat. Daichi sets up the fire, finding peace in the soothing motions of piling on the firewood and striking the flint.

Tetsurou lets him eat without help this time, which Daichi appreciates. But there is a sort of emptiness in having Tetsurou across the fire from him instead of pressed up against him, holding on to him as if he never wanted to let go.

As night falls, Tetsurou lingers by the fire as if he wants to say something but he seems to decide against it. He heads for the tent, a clear indication that he wants to sleep. Daichi throws on more firewood to keep the fire burning through the night and slips in after him.

Tetsurou is lying on his side with his eyes closed but his breathing is uneven, hitching slightly as Daichi lies next to him. The night is quiet apart from the muted crackling of the fire outside their tent, a heady silence expanding in the space inside. Daichi turns, his clothes rustling the slightest against the sleeping mat Tetsurou had laid down. In the near-dark, he can make out the faint outline of Tetsurou's back, broad shoulders tapering down into a slim waist. There is a familiarity about this and Daichi hesitates before touching Tetsurou's back, tracing a finger down lean muscle.

"Daichi," Tetsurou murmurs, the sound cutting through the silence like a knife.

Daichi shifts, slipping his arms around Tetsurou's waist and pressing his face against his back, right between his shoulder blades. Tetsurou doesn't move away or flinch, his hands coming up to grasp Daichi's arms, his touch tentative like he doesn't know what to do.

Daichi decides for him.

"You love me," he says, a statement more than a question. He hadn't asked where they are going or where they are because the answers to those questions don't interest him as much as this one does.

"Yes," Tetsurou says quietly but without hesitation.

"I don't remember anything about you," Daichi says and he feels Tetsurou flinch in his arms. "I know it's not fair to you. I'm sorry."

Tetsurou starts turning in his arms. "Daichi..." he says. He has been saying Daichi's name a lot, ever since Daichi first woke up and maybe even before that.

"I know it's not fair to you," Daichi continues, his face still pressed against Tetsurou's back, his body fitting perfectly against his like he has done this countless times before, "but can I stay like this for just a little while?"

Tetsurou stills. Then his body relaxes against Daichi's. "You can stay like this for the whole night if you want." He pulls Daichi's arms tighter around him, lacing his fingers through his and laying their entwined hands down on the mat gently. "I am yours, Daichi."

\---

Things change a little bit after that. When they wake up in the morning, Tetsurou is the giddy one, stumbling through a breakfast of leftover stew.

Daichi stares at him, unused to this sudden shift from a determinedly stoic Tetsurou to a markedly more cheerful Tetsurou. But it isn't a bad change—in fact, it is what Daichi had been trying to accomplish ever since he had a hunch that Tetsurou was holding back. When Tetsurou looks up and catches him staring, he smiles without reservation and Daichi nearly drops his bowl as his heart jumps into his throat.

In the early morning sun, Tetsurou is a vision. The light catches on Tetsurou's dark hair and lashes, distracting Daichi with so much as a blink. His hair is a mess even though Daichi is quite sure that he hadn't moved much in the night, sticking up all over the place like a nightmare, but still he is stunning. Golden eyes meet his, lips twisting into something more wicked than a smile. With a jolt, Daichi realises that was what had been missing before: a smirk.

Daichi flushes hot as he buries his nose in his bowl and tries not to look at Tetsurou. He likes this Tetsurou so much more than the Tetsurou before, which distresses him as much as it relieves him. Someone had once told him that Tetsurou was a bad choice for him, the echo of that warning lurking just within Daichi's head. But going by how Tetsurou looks at him, he probably hadn't listened.

"Daichi, are you alright?" Tetsurou leans over him, his smirk fading and being replaced by the now familiar concern.

Tetsurou may be all alluring eyes and easy smirks, power coiled tight in his languid movements, but he is also all this. Daichi can see why he might have loved him— _still does_ love him. His memories are gone but there are other parts of him that remember Tetsurou and long for him. It was what had driven him to lie beside him last night and what compels him now to reach out and smooth a reassuring hand over Tetsurou's cheek.

"I'm fine," Daichi tells him before Tetsurou decides that he needs to feed him. He smiles as Tetsurou stops hovering and sits down beside him, busying himself with nothing as Daichi gulps down the rest of his stew.

Tetsurou talks a lot more today as they set off on their journey, coming alive with animated gestures and bigger strides. Daichi walks beside him instead of behind him so that he can take it all in, matching his pace to Tetsurou's longer legs.

Tetsurou disappears momentarily while Daichi is distracted by a rustle in the bushes, using those silent footsteps to sneak away from Daichi, and Daichi turns in a circle, unsure as to how to proceed without Tetsurou leading the way. Then Tetsurou emerges seemingly out of thin air, loping towards Daichi with a wide grin on his face.

"Open your mouth," Tetsurou says as he stops before Daichi, his hands behind his back, as excited as a child. "Close your eyes too."

Daichi looks back at him warily and Tetsurou raises both eyebrows at him. Daichi could refuse and he knows that Tetsurou would still humour him in that coddling way of his. But he doesn't want that, not when he has only just started to coax Tetsurou back into being himself. Still suspicious, Daichi does as he is told and he feels Tetsurou place something against his tongue, his thumb brushing his bottom lip as he closes his mouth for him.

Sweetness bursts in his mouth, a tiny pinprick of it growing from the centre of his tongue where Tetsurou had placed something thin and light. Daichi opens his eyes and there is a narrow strip of white sticking out from between his lips.

"Sweet, isn't it?" Tetsurou says, still grinning as he plucks the style from another honeysuckle flower and puts it in his mouth.

"For a minute there, I was worried that you were going to poison me."

"I would never," Tetsurou gasps. "Anyway, I wouldn't use such an obvious method to poison anyone."

"So you have poisoned people," Daichi notes. "Have you poisoned me before?"

"I might have, but you're still here so there is no evidence of that."

Daichi sucks contemplatively on his style, chasing the last bit of sweetness from the thin strip. "Is that why I was unconscious then?"

Tetsurou's good mood evaporates and Daichi curses himself.

"No, never," Tetsurou says quietly, insistently. "It was my fault but I never wanted to do that to you."

Daichi doesn't know what to say to that. He should ask Tetsurou what had happened to him, the question the both of them have been avoiding, but he doesn't know if Tetsurou would give him a straight answer. He doesn't want Tetsurou to lie to him.

"Here, open up," Tetsurou says again, shaking off his gloom forcefully, plucking Daichi's style out of his mouth and replacing it with another one from the honeysuckle in his hand.

The sweetness spreads over Daichi's tongue again but he doesn't taste it as strongly this time, the flavour muted as he glances at Tetsurou and wonders what great wrong he had done to Daichi.

\---

The attack comes without warning.

They have been walking for days with only each other for company, living off the forest and what they have in their packs, the basic necessities. There is a sound from beside him and Daichi stops in his tracks, looking towards it.

An arrow flies past his nose, slicing through the air to bury itself in a tree trunk on Daichi's other side. Daichi blinks, startled, and the forest rustles all around them as men emerge from behind tree trunks, holding aloft weapons and sneering at the both of them.

"Leave behind all your goods and clothes and maybe we'll leave you two alone," drawls the man who steps directly in their path, swagger in his steps and confidence in the scimitar he holds. He holds it out in what he probably thinks is a threatening manner but for some reason, Daichi just finds himself unimpressed.

But Tetsurou is livid. He doesn't show it on his face but Daichi can feel heat and anger pulsating off him, his beautiful golden eyes darkening as he narrows them at the bandit leader.

"Why don't you and your men get out of our way and leave us alone?" Tetsurou suggests pleasantly. His hands are still slack beside him but Daichi knows how fast they can be when Tetsurou goes into motion. Him and his spear slung behind his back.

The bandits start up a mocking, jeering laugh all around them and the bandit leader looks incredulously at Tetsurou. "You and your companion there must really not want to live. I give you a peaceful solution that leaves us both happy and you choose to go to war instead."

"What do men like you know of war?" Tetsurou says, his voice lowering to a dangerous hiss.

Daichi doesn't even see his hand move before the spear buries itself in the chest of the bandit leader, his lips still pulled back in a guffaw, his eyes wide as he dies instantly. Silence falls on all of them instantly, uneasily, as the rest of the bandits consider the falling body of their leader. Then a growl starts up, the sharp slide of weapons filling the air before all hell breaks loose.

It ends as quickly as it starts with a spear buried in the final man's chest. Tetsurou braces a foot against his corpse as he pulls the spear out with a disgusted noise. Daichi only had to punch one man during the whole commotion and even then Tetsurou had made it a point to see to that poor man personally, driving the spear deep into his gut and letting him feel the blood gush out of him before he heads to a slow and painful death.

"Well," Daichi says, sweeping his eyes over the blood and carnage all over the forest floor and finding himself strangely calm in the midst of it all. Tetsurou had dispatched all of them efficiently and Daichi just feels that he could have contributed more to it.

"Shall we go?" Tetsurou returns to his side after wiping his blade on a dead man's shirt.

"We need to talk," Daichi tells him as they pick their way over the bodies and continue on their journey.

Tetsurou stops in his tracks, looking aghast. "Was it my technique? Was I too slow, too ungraceful, in killing those men?"

Daichi fights the urge to roll his eyes. "I'm not leaving you."

Tetsurou draws himself up to his full height and begins moving again. "Oh. Then talk."

"You're obviously not mortal," Daichi says.

Tetsurou makes a wordless noise of assent.

"Am I mortal?" Daichi asks.

Tetsurou falls silent, his footsteps making the barest whisper of a sound over the forest floor as he walks. His reply comes just as quietly, even though the pride in it is unmistakable. He says to Daichi, his eyes bright, admiring and affectionate, "You are so much more."

\---

There is a temple deep in the forest, so hidden amongst the trees and the natural landforms that Daichi would not have known to look for it had Tetsurou not steered him right to its doorstep. Overgrown roots decorate its entrance, holding the double doors fast, and Daichi mutters a quick apology as he hacks away at them with a knife.

This is their destination, Tetsurou had said with an urgency in his voice, his steps quickening as they had approached the temple. He doesn't help Daichi clear the roots from the entrance, hanging back and regarding the ancient temple with an expression Daichi doesn't know what to make of. His eyes are clouded, his shoulders heavy, and there is a pain in the way he looks at Daichi as he struggles to clear a way into the temple.

Finally, Daichi manages to pull off the last of the roots and he pushes the great doors open with both hands. They swing open easily at his touch, creaking under their stone weight as they scrape along the floor. Inside, the temple is empty and cold and Daichi looks back at Tetsurou, wondering what they had to do here. Tetsurou had wanted to move quickly and Daichi had thought it was because winter was approaching, but he doesn't see how they would be able to wait it out in this place with nothing.

Tetsurou comes to his side, his tone hushed and his touch light against Daichi's back as he says, "Go on, go inside."

Daichi takes a step forward and a shudder runs through him, starting from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. He stares forward into the gloom, his eyes tracing out the shape of an altar atop a stack of stairs. Like the rest of the temple, it is bare, without an object of worship for the devout to care for and offer their prayers to. Who was the god of this abandoned temple?

"Daichi," Tetsurou says to him and Daichi looks back to see him silhouetted in the temple's entrance, his expression unreadable, "I need you to do something for me here."

"Will it kill me?" Daichi asks.

"You have to trust me on this," Tetsurou says, his golden eyes gleaming in the gloom. "I would never hurt you. I swear it on my spear. I swear it on all I am. I need you to climb up to the altar and affix your medallion to it."

"This?" Daichi pulls the medallion out from his tunic, still hanging from his neck by a cord.

"Yes, that."

"Will you tell me what will happen?"

"I cannot."

"And yet, you still want me to do as you say."

Tetsurou meets his eyes steadily. "Yes."

"There are a lot of things you can't seem to tell me," Daichi murmurs, shivering as he hears his voice echo in the temple.

"Those were the conditions for this journey," Tetsurou says wearily. "I need your trust."

Daichi gazes down at the medallion in his hands, a simple, ordinary looking thing. _For safe travel,_ Tetsurou had told him. Tetsurou had kept him safe.

"You have it." Daichi breathes deeply, steadfast, fixing his eyes on the altar steps as he says the words he has heard Tetsurou say to him so many times before, "I am yours."

He climbs. Shivers pass over his arms, his legs, all over his body as he puts one foot above the other, pulling himself up to the altar. He can feel Tetsurou's eyes on him, watching his every step intently. Tetsurou isn't breathing, holding his breath as Daichi makes the climb, which Daichi somehow knows even without looking back at him.

Daichi reaches the top of the stairs and he looks at the altar, its smooth marble surface buried under layers of dust. There is a wall behind the altar and a bronze hook hanging off it, bare as if in anticipation. Daichi pulls the medallion off his neck, smoothing out the cord before he hangs it from the hook. The moment the medallion lays still against the wall, Daichi stops breathing.

The air in his lungs leaves him in a great sigh, taking with it his flesh and blood and bone, leaving him feeling lighter than he ever has since he first woke up. The medallion seems to grow before his very eyes, the burnished gold transforming into a brilliant circle of light that illuminates the temple. Daichi turns his face upwards, his gaze spreading over the inside of the temple, the grand torches bursting into flame on tall columns, the intricate carvings along the walls telling the story of a war god who protected his lands and his love with a shield of gold.

 _Oh,_ he thinks as the memories rush back into him, washing over him like a tidal wave, _this is my temple._

Daichi plucks the shield from the wall and wears it on his arm, its heavy weight pulling just right on him. His dusty travel clothes are gone, replaced by a tunic of cream not of worldly make, and his skin shines bronze, ichor running through his veins and granting him a divine strength.

"Tetsurou." Daichi turns, smiling as he stands at his altar, a restored god.

The smile that splits Tetsurou's face matches his own and he sees Tetsurou's limbs lengthen, growing taller than he had already been. His travel pack falls to the ground, his clothes fading and leaving a glorious tunic of charcoal grey in its place. His hands grip a spear of pure, glimmering silver from its base to the tip of its blade, the most deadly weapon that Daichi has ever known. Tetsurou drops it unceremoniously onto the temple floor as he runs up the steps towards Daichi and sweeps him up in his arms.

"You stupid, stupid _idiot_ ," Tetsurou says into his hair, his voice tight with emotion, his arms crushing Daichi against his chest. "Never ever give up your shield for me or anyone else ever again."

"Your lands were being ravaged," Daichi says reasonably, trying to free his arms and shield from Tetsurou's grip so that he can wrap his arms around him too. "My shield was the only way to hold them all back."

Tetsurou finally eases up a bit, moving his head back so that he can look Daichi in the eye. His eyes are the same as ever, a beautiful golden colour framed by a set of dark lashes, now slightly watery around the edges. "You could have fought alongside me, not martyr yourself for me. Yes, I could have perished on the battlefield but can you imagine how I felt when I saw your shield sacrificed at my altar?" His grip tightens on Daichi again. "You could have ceased to exist."

"I wouldn't," Daichi says calmly, touching a hand to Tetsurou's face, his thumb brushing over his cheekbone. "I took a chance on you."

"You trusted me to get you through this journey," Tetsurou says flatly, his nostrils flaring.

"And you did."

"The conditions from the great ones were to keep all information about your godhood and the purpose of this journey from you. You could have failed at any time. You could have refused to go with me or gotten slain by another mortal in your path. They _wanted_ you to keep wandering the mortal world, trapped in a mortal body until the day you died. That was how serious it was."

"Yes," Daichi says. "And you could have left me at any time. You had no obligation to this."

Kuroo's eyes darken with an intensity that Daichi has only seen in battle. Or around him. "I'm never leaving you, Daichi. You're stuck with me forever."

Daichi caresses his cheek, laughing as he says, "What did I do to get someone like you?"

"Everything right." Tetsurou turns into his touch, pressing his lips to his palm, his smile tender and lovely. "It's how you got me to marry you in the first place."

"Most of the gods still maintain that that was a mistake. The gods of the shield and the spear getting together? It would only end in disaster."

"I think they meant everlasting happiness."

Daichi smiles, slipping his hand into Tetsurou's and squeezing him tightly, reassuringly. _I'm here._ "Come on, pick up your spear. Let's go back home."

**Author's Note:**

> This story isn't based off any specific Greek myth but I wanted to borrow the whole lyrical Greek myth atmosphere for the setting. Instead, Daichi and Kuroo are made-up gods based off the shield and spear paradox, also known as the irresistable force paradox, which most of you might recognise as "when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object" (oh the memes).
> 
> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Find me here: [tumblr](http://kythen.tumblr.com) / [twitter](http://twitter.com/catcrowcalls)


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